


Recovery and Reconstruction 2 -- Dancing Waters

by Viola_Laterra



Series: Recovery and Reconstruction [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Flashbacks, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Lost Love, Post-Canon, Recovered Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 16:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18056465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viola_Laterra/pseuds/Viola_Laterra
Summary: Link and Zelda speak with King Dorephan, and more of Link's memories of Mipha resurface.  While Zelda goes to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, Link tries to get his mind off his grief by doing some gliding and climbing.  It only serves to intensify his problems; but Zelda gives him hope for the future.





	Recovery and Reconstruction 2 -- Dancing Waters

The trouble was, Link thought, that his memory was still patchy. And the flashbacks still caught him by surprise.

By now, he'd remembered a lot of what he'd lost. He remembered the first time he'd taken the Master Sword from the stone in the Korok forest, in front of the Deku Tree: just like the second time, it had almost killed him. Mipha had begged him not to do it. He remembered that, too.

"Link, I fear you are not strong enough!" she'd cried softly, when he told her what he intended to do.

He shook his head. He knew her so well; it wasn't an insult, or a criticism of his character... she didn't think him weak. She just knew the price the sword would exact, and was genuinely afraid it would kill him. What moved her to say it was simply her fear that he might not come back. And for what? Sometimes he asked himself that very question.

But the chance that it was necessary... he couldn't lose his courage now. Even if he was afraid that he wasn't strong enough... after Impa had summoned him, after she'd told him that he carried the blood of the Hero, that the Calamity was stirring... that the time would come soon when he would have to wield the sword that seals the darkness, or all would be lost... he had to try. He wasn't sure he'd ever be ready.

Mipha had begun to cry. Little diamond-tears glittered at the corners of her eyes, and she wiped them away with a hand. He reached out and took her other hand, bent down to kiss it, softly. Her skin was always smooth, cool, and moist to the touch. The feel of it on his lips, on his hands, wasn't a thing he wanted to forget, ever. 

The fact that he would, indeed, forget her... that was a thought that, now in the present, ran a sliver of guilt and shame right to his core, every time. The only thing that helped was realizing that it was only death, and a century of sleep, that had made him forget. 

In moments when he remembered some new part of his former life, some new memory of Mipha, he felt a deep regret. He'd known, when he'd gone to take the sword from the forest, that either he would die, or he would then be irrevokably tied to the Princess. He'd known that he couldn't stay with Mipha. He hadn't been ready, then, to leave her. He hadn't been sure he'd ever be ready to leave her. 

But at the time, he'd had to. He'd had to try to meet his destiny, to wield the sword that could save them all. He couldn't meet Mipha's eyes; just gave her hand a squeeze, and stood to go. She said softly, "Link..." and he stopped, almost turned, but felt he'd lose his nerve if he looked at her again. She said, quietly, "May the Goddess protect you." He nodded, once, solemnly, and left.

He'd remembered that part of his past, that moment of leaving Mipha and going to commit himself to the sword, when he and Zelda had gone to Zora's Domain after defeating the Calamity. It was the second time in a hundred years that he'd stood there, looking up at Mipha's statue, trying desperately to remember her, knowing that she felt so familiar... and been struck almost senseless as the memory came rushing back. "May the Goddess protect you," she had said. Mipha, though, had been the one to protect him. 

And only a short while later, when they'd stood before King Dorephan, and Zelda had told the king about his daughter's death, about Mipha's absolutely critical role in defeating the Calamity, and how she was now at peace... the memories of those recent events were not the ones that surfaced.

Instead, Link began to remember all the times he and Mipha had played together as children... How all the young Hylian children in neighboring villages had wanted to swim with the Zora children, but none could keep up, except Link, who was determined. How he'd tried to follow, but missed a current and dashed himself against the rocks, and Mipha had grabbed him and towed him to the shallows. He remembered the indescribable feeling of her healing him that first time, though the memory was somewhat muddled, he'd been so disoriented from the impact. 

And he remembered how he'd followed Mipha everywhere, and how she'd teased him, gently, diving deeper than he could, staying just out of his reach. And how as they'd grown, he'd realized she let him catch up more often, swam much closer to him, how it had felt when her body had glided just past his, how it had been, the first time she'd finally climbed out of the water to talk to him at length. How soft-spoken she was, but how warm. In fact, he was probably the one person in the world who spoke less than she did. But it meant she had all the space she needed to share herself with him; something he thought she probably didn't do with many people. Zora and Hylian alike loved her; but how many of them actually knew her? She was so quiet, mostly listening to others, healing others, giving to them. He was one of few who listened to her instead.

And he remembered how when he pushed himself too far, she'd bring him back, and heal his wounds, and make him whole again. That feeling was no one single memory, but a deep sense of familiarity. Of someone who was such a part of him that it was impossible for her to be gone now.

Dorephan, after Zelda had finished her account of Mipha's heroism, bowed his great head for a moment. Then he looked up again, and met Link's eyes. Link didn't know what to say to him; but instead, found tears forming and trailing down his cheeks.

The Zora King sighed, slowly, and said softly to the two Hylians, "Yes, Champion. I see that you have remembered that you have lost as much as I have." Link nodded, once, catching his breath before it could become a sob.

The King turned to Zelda and continued, "Though we have all lost much, it has not been for naught. With the Calamity defeated, and the Divine Beasts ours once again, the great work the two of you had begun can continue. I feel we will see a long era of prosperity and peace, as we rebuild our Hyrule."

Zelda nodded, smiled, spoke to the King. But Link was barely paying attention. He bowed when it seemed like the right time, and left the throne room with Zelda when she turned to go.

On the way out, Prince Sidon stopped Link. The Prince smiled down at him, grabbed his forearm and gave him a hearty squeeze. Link clasped Sidon's forearm in return, and summoned a weak smile for him. Sidon said, "We did it, in the end. It made her sacrifice worth it."

Link nodded, squeezed the Prince's arm, and then they left. Zelda was chattering on about the next place to go -- she wanted to visit the laboratories to discuss a new set of experiments on the ancient Sheikah technologies with Purah and Robbie.

"I think that we could use the guardians for more mundane purposes than fighting evil. For example, I imagine they could be programmed to help with plowing fields..." Zelda trailed off as she realized Link wasn't listening.

She was silent long enough that he looked over at her as they walked. She was watching him. She said to him, softly, "I can go on alone, from here. If you need some... time."

Link realized, looking back into Zelda's eyes, that she must know what he was feeling. She'd known that Mipha was very important to him, and though she was easily caught up in her own plans and analyses, he had noticed that she'd been trying to pay attention to his feelings when they'd been on their way to Zora's Domain. 

That he'd caught her reaction to his use of Urbosa's power lent that much more strength to the feeling: she knew what this loss felt like. He'd never been sure of the extent of her relationship with Urbosa, but from her reaction... she was feeling the same guilt at having survived when they'd all died, and the same sadness born of the feeling of forever lacking some irreplaceable part of one's being.

But he just nodded at her. Tried to smile. She smiled back at him, though her eyes were still sad. For his sake, or her own, he didn't know. He looked up the road to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, and then over to the edge of the cliff, which ran sheer down to the sea.

Zelda followed his gaze, and then said to him, "I'll look for you down there when I'm done." Link simply unhooked the Sheikah slate from his belt and wordlessly held it out to her. She took it, a little hesitantly -- it was the first time she'd had it in her hands since he'd died. But he saw her steel herself, nod firmly at him, and turn to walk up the long road to the lab. He told himself that there were hardly any monsters about anymore, and the Princess was much more capable of defending herself than she had been. She'd told him, once, back then, to stop following him. He'd refused to obey, and he'd saved her life more than once. She'd eventually come to trust him, even to want his company. Now, in this moment, as she walked away from him, these were... quite different circumstances. 

He watched as she climbed up towards the lab. When she was around the last bend and in easy reach of her goal, he turned and walked to the cliff face, closed his eyes, feeling the breeze from the ocean streaming past him... salty, bracing. He took a deep breath, and dove off, falling down through the cold air, feeling it tearing at him, at his clothing and equipment, until he opened his eyes to see the ground getting a little too close.

He pulled out the paraglider; the familiar jerk and pull as it caught the air and slowed his descent was reassuring. He found his way down, settling onto the beach at the foot of the cliff. He looked up at the sheer face above him, and decided there was no reason for Zelda to come find him down here, if he could climb up to her. The exertion would do him good. Maybe help him steady himself... not forget his pain, exactly, but bear it differently.

He had to eliminate a few stray monsters on the beach, but when the area was clear, he stripped off all of his equipment except his climbing gear. Thin-soled shoes with a rough texture, better for gripping the rock; bandana to hold his hair out of his eyes; sleveless tunic and short leggings that wouldn't restrict his movement.

And he began to climb. And he was right; it did help. As he moved against the rock, he could feel a kind of calm come over him... a kind of unity of body, mind, and spirit. Here, move an arm to brace against a bulge in the rock; there, shift a knee higher, put a little more weight on that foot as the other leg sweeps lightly to the side against the rock face for balance; push up and find new places to grip with the hands, to hang for a moment while evaluating the new options for footholds.

He became so engrossed in the climb that he didn't notice how tired he was getting. Just as he reached a place in the rock where he would need to make a little jump to the side, he started to notice his breathing was heavier than he'd like, as he calculated how much further it was to the top. He'd left all his rejuvenating supplies on the beach, but if he could just get to a place to rest, he could still make it to the lab, where the Princess was working away. He hadn't meant to leave her for this long.

So he made the jump, and grasped the outcrop with both hands, lightly bracing his feet on the ledge below, and then began to climb again, until he realized he couldn't make it. He made a desperate attempt to jump for a hold he could finally haul himself up on to rest, but he didn't quite make it, his arms and legs now shaking uncontrollably with the exertion, and then nerveless and unable to hold on at all.

He fell. He plummeted all the way back down to the beach. And just as he felt the ground barely touch him, the unmistakable feeling of Mipha's healing enveloped him.

Mipha had shared her grace with him so many times in life; and so many times after her death as he'd struggled to be ready to face the Calamity, to go and save Zelda. But all those times more recently, he'd been in the throes of the struggle to survive, to be skilled enough to succeed against Ganon, and his memories had been so muddled.

This time... this time, he remembered her. This time, there were no distractions. This time, he felt her being, her essence, all around him, telling him, "I will always protect you."

And as the feeling faded, and he found himself laying on the beach, he remembered... everything. Everything about her.

At first it was a tumult of fragments, running in no particular order. But then, one particular memory surfaced above the rest. It was from before he'd known about his destiny.

They'd been swimming down the river, had just gone past the second bridge. They emerged from the water at the Bank of Wishes. Mipha sighed, and said to him, "You know, it's called the Bank of Wishes, because the story goes, if you make a wish to the water fairy, and write a love letter, and send it from here... she will make sure your true love finds it."

He'd chuckled at the wistful way she'd said it. "Don't laugh!" she'd said, but laughed a bit, herself. "I know, it's a silly thought. And of course, there aren't so many Zora living down in the Lanayru wetlands anyway. Mostly Hylians. So if you sent a letter from here, you'd be likely to find that your true love is very... different from you." He'd been sitting on the bank, looking at her as she said it, and thinking that being different from each other wasn't so bad at all.

She hadn't been looking at him, though. And as she said, wistfully, "That doesn't mean I didn't dream of doing it, when I was a child," he thought of how beautiful she was, delicate features and strange-but-familiar curves and colors.

"And..." she turned to him, caught her breath at the way he was looking at her. "And, that was even before I met you," she said, very softly.

They were sitting very close to each other, as was their habit. But, other than Mipha's healing him, they never touched, usually. Link suddenly wanted very badly to touch her. He felt so deeply grateful for all the time and care she gave him, and maybe it was the wistful way she'd talked about love letters, but it came to him that maybe she was more than a friend to him; or that he wanted her to be more than a friend to him.

So he very slowly reached out with a hand to touch her forearm. She was still looking at him, and drew in a sharp little breath as he traced the faint markings there. She was smooth, soft, slick with the water from having swum down here. He looked up, meeting her eyes, concerned that she didn't want him to touch her, but he was gratified to see her smiling. He smiled back.

She reached out, tracing a line from his bare shoulder down to his elbow, then to wrist, and finally to the index finger. Her short claws didn't leave any mark, she was so gentle, but they left a fiery line of sensation where she'd touched him. He didn't know how Zora expressed desire, but he did know how Hylians did; so he slid his hands up her arms, drew her closer, and leaned over to kiss her cheek. 

Mipha seemed game -- she pulled him even closer, sliding her hands up his back; his skin, too, was still a little slick from the swimming. The day wasn't cold; but also not warm enough to dry him or his swimming trunks. She tucked her face into his neck, and he felt her lips move against his collarbone, then up next to his ear. It was not unlike the feeling of fish nibbling at your feet when you dangled them in the water. But it was less ticklish, magnitudes more intense, and more arousing, when Mipha did it to him.

Exploring, he ran a hand from her forehead back, all the way down to her tail. She shivered, and sat back from him a little. He could see a mix of feelings playing across her face. He knew her well enough to see that at least one of them was pleasure, happiness. But there were some doubts there, as well.

So he waited for her to speak. At length, she said, "Link... let's get back in the water." He wasn't sure what Mipha was thinking, but he nodded. She dove in, and he admired the lines of her body, her gracefulness as she arced through the air and into the river. He stood and dove in after her, doing his best not to make a fool of himself.

And then she was right next to him, and he could see why she'd wanted to get back in the water... she took his hands, and led him in a kind of dance, as they swirled past each other. And she was like the water, herself; she coiled around him, skin sliding smooth and fins tickling, as she explored the way he responded when she touched different parts of his body.

At some point, he became overwhelmed with the sensations, and started to sink a bit too much into the water. Mipha was instantly leading him back to the shallows. She perched herself on a partially-submerged rock and waited for him to regain his equilibrium. At length, he reached up out of the water where he lay, placing a hand on her leg. She slid back down into the water, laying her own length against him, and leaned down and whispered, "I'm not sure if I'll do it right, but this is how Hylians kiss, isn't it?" and she leaned down and kissed him on the lips. It was more delicate than a kiss from another Hylian, but it was just as intense. They kissed for a few long, lingering moments, before she drew back, resuming her perch on the rock, and studied him pensively.

At length, she sighed and said, "You know I'm a little older than you." He shook his head. "You've looked older than me, for a long time. But I'm catching up." He smiled slyly at her, thinking of the way she moved when they'd been swimming just now, and how she'd kissed him, and nodded.

"But," she went on, "Zora -- and especially Zora princesses -- are supposed to take a very long time deciding who they want to be with." He nodded again, more serious now. If she didn't want this with him... well. He would get over it. Mipha was his friend, maybe his best friend. That was just as important, probably even more important.

She sighed again. "But I can tell you right now that I can't think of anyone I'd rather be with, when the time is right." He smiled at her. He was surprised by the feeling of relief that flooded him after she said it.

She smiled back, and the mood lightened. "I will outlive you, you know," Mipha said to Link. "Zora can live for hundreds of years... much longer than a Hylian. Especially with how you carry on." She was teasing, in that soft way she had of teasing. "But it means I'll remember you, long after you're gone." 

She'd poked him softly in the middle, and then turned and jumped back into the river, and he'd followed her. He'd followed her to the end of the river, and would have followed her to the ends of the earth, if he'd needed to. But hadn't been long after this memory that Impa had summoned him.

And now the memory was heartbreak, knowing that he would, in the end, outlive Mipha instead, and it was he who would have to remember her after she was gone. 

The sand felt gritty and uncompromising against his back. He tried to rouse himself, managed to crawl back to where he'd left his other possessions. And then he put his hands on the Zora armor she had made for him. And that was what did it.

He curled up, holding the tunic to his face, against his chest, and let the tears fall unchecked. She had made this for him... she had said to him, that when the Calamity was dealt with, maybe they could go back to how things had been. She'd meant, before he'd been bound to fulfill his destiny. Because... if they'd sealed Ganon, then he could have put the sword back in the forest, left Zelda to learn to rule (or to experiment with ancient technology), and then come back to Mipha. And they could have been together.

She must have believed that was possible, hoped for it to happen. She'd made the armor for him, with her own hands, believing it, dreaming of that future. He could feel it, that hope, as he clutched the fabric close to him.

And now... the only way they could be together was when he was close to death, and she could save him. The thought was unbearable, and Link just let the sobs wrack him, and lost all sense of time or place.

And that was how Zelda found him, some time later. He dimly noted her land lightly, a distance down the beach from him. He'd discovered, soon after they began their trek across Hyrule, that she had her own paraglider -- and was quite adept at using it, though she had less stamina than he did and couldn't glide as far.

She folded it up, and walked towards him. As she saw that something was wrong, she broke into a run and when she got close, he saw fear in her eyes. She knelt beside him.

"Link, are you all right? What's wrong?" she asked. He still couldn't speak, could feel that if he tried, all that would come out were sobs. So instead, he unfolded himself slightly, showing her Mipha's gift. 

Zelda understood, instantly. "Oh," she said, "I see. You remember more, now?" He nodded miserably.

She looked down, was silent for a while. When she looked back up, meeting his eyes again, he saw she was crying, too. "You know, I think about it all the time. That it was my fault they died. If only I could have..." Link sat up a little, put a hand on Zelda's leg. She looked at him, and took a deep breath, and said, through her tears, "But I know they wouldn't blame me. I know I tried my hardest. Urbosa told me, so many times, how proud she was of me. I know she wouldn't hate me for it. And... and she wouldn't want me to hate myself for it, either." Link nodded.

She took another deep breath, and put her hands on his shoulders. "And, Link... the only way I can think of, to be able to go on without her... without them... is that we carry them with us, in our hearts and memories. And... you, more than the rest of us, carry some of them with you."

He saw what she meant, and it was like the sun breaking through a storm. The clouds, the sadness, it was still there. But there was light beyond them, shining through them. And Zelda was right. Mipha wouldn't have wanted him to be unhappy. That thought made the tears start afresh... thinking of how she'd have told him, gently, to stop being silly, and get on with his life. But these tears felt like rain washing away old things, leaving room for new. They didn't threaten to drown him.

And Zelda shifted close to him, scooching up to lean on a nearby boulder, and pulled him close, wrapped her arms around him. She said softly, "It doesn't make us miss them any less, however." And he let these last tears fall, wrapped his arms around Zelda in return, resting his head on her shoulder, letting her stroke his back, listening to her humming an old lullaby that had been passed down in her family for centuries. They stayed like that a long time, the Princess and the Champion, next to the sea. The sea was large enough to absorb and carry away their grief, as the sea always does.

**Author's Note:**

> I have only skimmed some of the content of the DLC, though I do see that they explain how Mipha and Link first met, and Mipha's journal seems to suggest that they didn't see each other much. But I wrote this before having seen the DLC, and I actually prefer a situation where there's time spent between the two of them -- a long history, in fact -- that warrants Mipha's feelings for Link.
> 
> Also I realized after the fact that I was probably unintentionally echoing some of the interspecies intimacy represented in Shape of Water. :)
> 
> (Written 6-9 March 2019)


End file.
